Chapter 397: Assassinating an Eastern Warlord (2/2)

For three days, Jürgen stayed within the forest, hunting and trapping his food while surviving the land; just when he thought his pursuers had lost track of him, he felt a sharp pain pierce through his thigh. A barbed arrow stuck out from his leg just below the femoral artery. He was well and truly crippled.

Though he tried to crawl away, he was eventually kicked over by a large Mongolian man dressed in the armor of his people. Just as the man was about to bring down his blade and decapitate the wounded field agent, his hand was stopped, and an even larger man began speaking to him with a stern tone, in a language that Jürgen did not understand.

Before long, Jürgen was bound up with rope and carried out of the forest by Mongols. The worst imaginable situation had transpired; he was captured alive by the Golden Horde and would undoubtedly be tortured for information on his identity before being executed.

Jürgen knew the odds of rescue were low, and such resigned himself to his fate; even if aid could arrive, there was no conceivable way for them to break into the Golden Horde's encampment and free him from his bondage. Unknowingly to him, his owl had reported his location to the nearest field outpost, and thus, a team of agents was already on its way to search for his whereabouts.

...

Roughly a month had passed since Jürgen's capture, and at the moment, Hemma who was the Deputy Director of Royal Intelligence was standing within the halls of their headquarter's located within the city of Kufstein. She held a field report in her hand as a frown curled upon her lips. After reading through the information, she fully understood the situation at hand.

Since Jürgen's capture, the Golden Horde had split off into various factions vying for the position of the Next Khan. The objective had been achieved, and their advance into the Teutonic State was halted. They were no longer united, and Jürgen was surprisingly still alive. Though tortured mercilessly, he had never revealed his identity. Thus the Mongols continued to keep him breathing for the time being.

However, his current location was deep within the camp of the prime candidate for the position of Khan. With 50,000 horse riders by his side, it would not be easy to extract the field agent from his predicament. A team of agents was constantly monitoring the situation, and they had sent a request back to Headquarters on how to proceed.

It would not take long before Jürgen had finally broken and revealed that this was a ploy by Austrian Intelligence to slow down the Golden Horde's Advance into the Teutonic State's lands. When that happened, open warfare would occur between Austria and the Golden Horde.

Such an outcome needed to be stopped at all costs. Thus Hemma, who was currently dressed in her work uniform, had a complicated expression on her lips. Until now, none of her field agents had been captured alive.

The information that Jürgen had available could quickly spark a war between the two countries. Thus two options presented themselves; either way, an elite team that she did not have available would have to sneak into the enemy encampment.

After dwelling upon it for some time, Hemma sighed heavily as she stared at her Director of Covert Operations, who had handed her the report. After several moments of silence, she revealed her thoughts on the matter.

”It looks like I am going to have to request aid from the director herself...”

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